Freak City (5 page)

I wondered which of the many gestures her hands had made meant, “freak out.” Was there a separate sign for every expression in sign language?

“I’m sorry, I haven’t actually introduced myself to you,” the woman said suddenly, stretching her hand out toward me. “My name is Sabine.”

I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you ma’am. I’m Mika,” I said. “How do you know sign language?”

Sabine looked at me in horror. “Listen here, I’m only thirty-five! If you call me ma’am again, I’ll fall into a deep depression on the spot, and my wrinkles will triple!” She laughed and translated for Leah. Leah laughed.

Thirty-five. That was only a year younger than my mother. But I’d best keep that to myself.

“Seriously. You can call me Sabine. My parents are both deaf so I learned sign language growing up. Now I freelance as an interpreter for people who cannot hear. When people have to see a doctor or have other business to take care of, they can ask me to go with them. And I give classes in sign language, too. Are you interested, young man?”

She winked at me. Learn sign language? When, and why?

Suddenly, I spotted Sandra, Vanessa, and Nadine in the foyer. They must have come upstairs from the Dark Café, and the three of them stood there without noticing me. I quickly turned back toward Sabine.

“Sure I’d be interested,” I lied. I had no idea why I said that. At that moment, the only important thing was that the conversation continue. Until Sandra had seen us. It would be just fine for her to know that my life was moving along without her, too.

“Really?” Sabine’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She studied me in disbelief. “And you know someone you can practice with?”

I nodded toward Leah. She was incredibly cute, and it would definitely be interesting to be able to communicate with her the way Sabine did. Without needing someone to translate all the time.

Besides, Leah could teach me new words in sign language. Words you wouldn’t learn in any class. Like idiot. Suck-up. Geek face. Claudio, Tobias, and I could develop our own secret language! We could talk about our insider stuff in sign language at school. That would be amazing.

Sabine shared what I had said with Leah. Baffled, Leah pointed a forefinger at herself. Her cheeks glowed red. It definitely didn’t happen every day that a total stranger waltzed in out of nowhere and immediately offered to learn her language. There probably weren’t that many people she could easily have a conversation with. Her family, of course. But apart from that?

Leah was probably thinking I had fallen head over heels in love with her. I felt like a heel. If Sandra hadn’t been standing in the doorway, I would never have made this crazy suggestion.

“That’s awesome!” Sabine cried, winking at me again. Apparently, that was a tick she had. This time, though, it was more of a conspiratorial winking. “Leah really caught your attention, eh?” she commented.

But she was wrong. Sure I was interested in Leah. But I was in love with the blonde girl at the door. This good Samaritan show was all for Sandra’s benefit and not for Leah.

“When Tommek finds the list I’ll add you to it right away.” Sabine was practically bubbling over with enthusiasm.

“The lists!” Tommek slapped his forehead with his hand. “Now I know where I filed them. With the invoices for the summer festival.”

Sabine shook her head. “That’s absolutely not where they belong. Whatever you do, don’t become an accountant later in life. Come on, let’s go find them together.”

Tommek and Sabine moved off toward a narrow door bearing the word “Office.” The letters were crooked and underneath that someone had written, “Yawn!” with a metallic pen. That must have been Tommek’s doing.

Finally, Sandra noticed me. “Mika?” she called across the room with surprise. Looking astonished, I turned around toward her. She shouldn’t notice that I had been expecting her at any price.

“Oh, Sandra,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. “Hey Vanessa, hi Nadine. What are you doing here?”

What are
you
doing here? The way I said it made it sounded like I hung around here all the time. At a pool hall with a pretty girl, whom Sandra studied closely like she was a wild animal. Sandra stepped toward me, shocked. She gave me a clumsy kiss on the cheek. I would have liked to pull her close. My hands began to tremble uncontrollably, and I awkwardly folded them together. Hopefully, no one had noticed.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Sandra said. She spoke in her sweet, soft voice, the one she generally used to persuade her father to let her do something. With exactly that voice, she had asked him for money to buy a scooter.

“We were just talking about you,” she said. “We were downstairs, in the Dark Café.”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been there, too. Pretty wild, isn’t it?” I was amazed at how relaxed I sounded, as if I were incredibly open minded. Dark Café, Freak City, an intern with red hair who pretended to be Superman. In reality, this was a new world for me. A world where I didn’t feel comfortable at all. Sandra’s mouth fell open. Then she shut it again. Her confusion was reflected in her eyes. She had shoved the new sunglasses back in her hair.

“And who is that?” she finally asked, nodding toward Leah. The nod wasn’t exactly friendly. Sandra always treated good-looking girls as if they were her natural enemies. No idea why.

Leah nodded in return. Her face had taken on a curious expression. I quickly turned my back on Leah. She could read a few words from lips, okay. But she couldn’t hear, so I had a clear advantage. “That’s Leah, a new friend of mine,” I claimed quietly. “We met each other a few days ago in town. Unfortunately, she can’t introduce herself.” I turned to Leah and smiled at her. “She’s deaf,” I said, repeating the sign that she had just used a few minutes ago. I pointed to my right ear and brought my hands together in front of me.

“That’s crazy!” Vanessa blurted. “Next you’re going to tell us you know sign language, too!”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I replied. “Just a few words. But soon I will. I want to sign up for a class. It takes a lot of effort to always communicate in little fragments.”

Sandra seemed relieved. She looked at Leah with pity, as if she were a kitten that had been run over. Leah had suddenly ceased to be competition, now that it was clear she couldn’t hear anything. Vanessa and Nadine didn’t say anything else. It had literally made them speechless.

The office door swung open and Sabine came over to me. She held some stacks of paper under her arm. “I could offer you a spot in the group on Tuesdays, every Tuesday from six to eight. Or there’s the intensive course during the summer vacation. It’s actually geared toward college students who are majoring in special education, but if you want, I can get you in that one. Monday through Friday, three hours every afternoon. The class starts on the last day of school and lasts six weeks.”

“I want to learn as fast as possible,” I said. “If you can put me in the intensive class, that would be great.”

Inwardly, I was overjoyed. Just hearing the words special education had made Sandra go pale. I knew her too well: it was incomprehensible to her that her boring ex-boyfriend would spend his free time with actual college students.

“You are something else!” Sabine said, winking at me yet again. “With your motivation, you’ll learn fast.” She looked at her watch. “People, I have to go. Have an appointment with the mechanic across the street. Something’s wrong with the carburetor. Mika, write your phone number here so I can call you about the exact dates.”

I scribbled my cell phone number next to my name and handed the registration form back to Sabine. So now I was officially registered for a sign language course. If Claudio and Tobias found out about this, they’d have me locked up in an insane asylum for sure. Sabine waved at us and disappeared outside. She forgot the helmet on the table. It lay there and brought a touch of freedom to the dim Freak City.

“And you’re really going to learn sign language?” Vanessa repeated dully. Her eyes were rimmed with blue eyeliner. I had never noticed how unflattering that was on her.

“Sure,” I said. “The summer vacation always drags on so long anyway. I want to do something worthwhile with it, not just hang around. It’s interesting to learn a new language.”

“Maybe I’ll take some kind of class, too,” Nadine chimed in quickly. “Painting or something. There are all kinds of things out there.”

“That’s true,” I said, like I was super well informed about summer classes. So far I had always spent my summer vacations at the swimming pool.

My cell phone rang. I flipped it open and glanced at it. A text had arrived. It consisted of just three commands: “Hello Kitty, Little Mermaid, or My Little Pony!”

“I have to get going,” I announced, closing my phone just a little too fast. “Have to meet someone soon.” I nodded to Sandra, Vanessa, and Nadine, walked around the pool table and hugged Leah like it was the most natural thing in the world. I had never done anything like that, touching a complete stranger without her permission. I noticed how Leah stiffened in my embrace. It was completely unfair what I was doing.

I nodded to her awkwardly, said, “Bye, everyone,” and then turned away and rushed toward the door. A noise behind me made me pause again, a hard blow that made me literally whirl around. It sounded as if someone were throwing cement blocks around the room.

Leah held the blue ball in her hand and pounded it on the table. Obviously, she knew how to make herself understood, even without hearing.

When I looked in her direction, she held up the Hello Kitty autograph book. I quickly returned and shoved it under my arm. And that’s when it happened. None of the others could see it. Leah let her left hand tremble slightly, just like my hand had trembled when Sandra had greeted me, and I lost control of myself for a moment. At the same time, Leah gave me a look that let me know she knew full well what was going on here, even without hearing any of the conversation. She stopped the exaggerated shaking of her hand. I blushed. Leah smiled.

“Hello Kitty is cute,” Vanessa said, not catching any of the little exchange between us.

“It’s for my sister,” I muttered.

When I got outside, I took a deep breath. What a fabulous performance! The disbelief on Sandra’s face! Me and this beautiful, unknown girl!

When I got past the park, I laughed aloud. So loud that a swarm of sparrows flew into the air and disappeared somewhere in the canyons between the buildings.

Pink balloons and streamers hung all over the house. On the mirror, the bookshelves, everywhere. I had blown up balloons the night before with my dad. Iris moved through the room appraising our work critically.

“That one is crooked,” she said accusingly.

“Balloons can’t be crooked,” I replied. “They just hang however they hang. There isn’t any straight or crooked!”

“But that one looks better!” She pointed to the balloon next to the offender. She was right, somehow. I tugged on the ribbon we had used to tie up the balloons.

Iris had already taken off to inspect everything outside. “The napkins with polka dots, not the white ones!” she snapped at our dad, who was setting the table on the patio outside with Mom.

Four of her friends from school would be coming, plus Grandma and Aunt Vera. Tanya, my mother’s best friend, had also accepted the invitation. She was Iris’s godmother and part of almost every family celebration. I got a knot in my stomach just thinking about Tanya. The doorbell rang.

“Aunt Vera!” My sister threw herself around the neck of our only aunt. Vera was out of breath. She lived with Grandma next door on the second floor, but the short walk to our house had been strenuous for her.

The other guests arrived one after the other. When the doorbell rang one last time around three thirty, I knew that it could only be Tanya. Mom looked at me strangely. “Can you get that?” she asked, as if she couldn’t open the door herself.

I sighed. I wasn’t in the mood for Tanya and hadn’t seen her in ages. Annoyed, I shuffled into the foyer and pulled the door open.

Tanya stood outside bearing too many presents. There were at least three packages, and on top lay a huge bag of gummy bears. Next to Tanya stood Sandra, with one hip casually jutting to the side. No idea where she’d seen that pose. She must have seen it in some music video.

“Surprise!” Sandra announced, finally taking a normal stance. I wasn’t even particularly surprised to see her. Maybe I had even suspected it. Who knows? I had been thinking about her nonstop ever since we had met at Freak City anyway. It was as if my thoughts had simply taken form.

“Mom talked me into coming with her,” Sandra said without further explanation and forced her way past Tanya into the foyer.

“Sandra!” I could hear my sister cheer behind me. Tanya looked at me with a guilty expression. I shrugged my shoulders.

It wasn’t Tanya’s fault that she was Sandra’s mother. It wasn’t her fault that Sandra had broken up with me. And I couldn’t do anything about the fact that my ex-girlfriend happened to be the daughter of my mother’s best friend!

“Hi, Tanya,” I said, hugging her awkwardly.

She stroked my face. “Everything will be all right again soon,” she whispered, like she wanted to apologize for Sandra’s behavior.

Mom had met Tanya eight years earlier at a Tupperware party. Since then they had been nearly inseparable. But it was only about a year ago for me when it really registered that Tanya had a daughter. She brought Sandra to our annual summer party, and that’s when it happened.

Love at first sight. Sandra and I had ducked out at some point and were watching
While You Were Sleeping
in the living room. At one of the romantic moments, Sandra had reached for my hand. Man, were we young back then. Fourteen!

Last summer, Sandra still had long hair and was even a little bit plump. She sure had changed a lot since then.

“You look good,” Tanya lied, hanging her jacket on a hanger. “Sandra will come to her senses again. She misses you. I know that for sure. You two make such a good couple!”

I thought about Daniel, the guy Sandra wanted to go camping with tonight at the quarry. Did Tanya have a clue? Did Tanya know that Sandra and I had slept together? Probably not. Sandra and her mom got along fine but didn’t have a close relationship.